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out. And that was pretty fun for them, so it's pretty important." While his tenure as a starter thus far spans only a solitary month, things are working out the way he had hoped they would. "Yeah, I love it," Nevills said. "Going out there and wrestling in Rec Hall and all the other places is fantastic. So it's about as fun as anything else I've done." Older brother Nick was able to inform Seth about what to expect in the wrestling room, which made things easier coming in. The grayshirt year didn't hurt, either. And while Nick warned little brother that it isn't easy to win matches in the Penn State practice room – Seth said that is still ringing true – he didn't let him know that team road trips aren't what Seth had envisioned. "I always thought the trips were going to be super serious and nobody would be smiling the whole time, but it's just been lots of fun and lots of laughter throughout the trip, so that was a good change," Seth Nevills said. "Really, just seeing the different side of the guys that you don't see in the room every day, just being at matside with them and all the things they're saying, all the nice things they're saying to you to get you ready to go out there and wrestle your best – that's a really nice thing that kind of gets me going." And as just a freshman, he has a long time to go. ■ D espite Penn State's near-dynastic effort in wrestling the past decade and Iowa's fall from glory, beating the Hawkeyes is still a benchmark of suc- cess. Iowa is ranked No. 1 this season and its 19-17 victory over the second- ranked Nittany Lions on Jan. 31 filled the hopes of about 15,000 fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena that this is the year the Hawkeyes' glory days on the mat return. There were outstanding matchups, drama down to the last match and an upset or two. And because of that, the match was the Big Ten Network's most-watched wrestling telecast in its history, averaging 343,000 viewers and eclipsing the February 2018 match between No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Ohio State by 11 percent. The Lions' two upcoming battles with Iowa – at the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments – will answer this year's question of whether Iowa has re- claimed the kingdom it ruled for decades before Penn State's rapid as- cent to the top. "Iowa has a great team and it's just basically round one," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. "We'll see them again at the Big Tens and the nationals, and we have to get better in a few weight classes and just get healthy and just get our best team out there and give ourselves a chance. "College wrestling is competitive and it's getting more exciting, and I guess the numbers are showing that, so that's good to see." You can count on a lot of people see- ing the postseason rematches. FINDING THE RIGHT MIX What would a Penn State wrestling story be with- out a discussion about the Nittany Lions' lineup? At the beginning of February, the lineup contained three freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and three seniors. Depending on health and some tough coaching decisions, by month's end those numbers could be four, three, one and two. Sanderson said he doesn't know if sophomore Brady Berge (concussion) will be cleared at 157, and while he wants to give senior Shakur Rasheed (knee) every opportunity to regain his All-America form of 2018, he said freshman Michael Beard is "ready to go" at 197 if that doesn't happen. ALL ABOUT AARON Sanderson pulled the redshirt on another talented fresh- man, Aaron Brooks, on Dec. 6 at Lehigh. Brooks sparked the team's vic- tory that night and nearly did it again at Iowa when the four-time Maryland state champion soundly upended fel- low freshman star Abe Assad, who also had a redshirt pulled. "Aaron Brooks is easygoing. He has the right perspective," Sanderson said. "His first match of the year was a big match for us against Lehigh. He was one of the calmer guys we had in the lineup that day, and he was just smil- ing and excited to compete, so I think he's going to be a real consistent com- petitor for us. He's a guy that you will see continue to improve every time he competes." BO KNOWS PRESSURE Bo Pipher, Penn State's 157-pound junior who has been filling in for Berge, has wrestled at three weights in his three seasons. His success has been, well, 50-50, since he brought a .500 career record into this season and is around that mark this year. Like many other wrestlers, a short memory is his friend. "Every week it's a new match… just not keeping anything from the last match, going into the next match," Pipher said. "Just whatever happened in a match on Friday, you forget about it in the match on Sunday; it's not something you need to be thinking about hanging over your head." ■ Matchup at Iowa previews tourney battles to come | N O T E B O O K

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